Elder Chipman's Adventures in Africa: Week 1 - Fairview B

Ok well first I would just like to say thank you to everyone for all of the birthday wishes! It felt like a normal day out here in the field but I truly did feel all of the love that was being sent to the durty south haha.

This week was a great one with lots of changes and adjusting. After Transfer Monday, Elder Martins, Elder Smith, Elder Sharpe, Sister Ross and I had to take a trip to cross the border to renew our 90 day visas in Swaziland. We went to Namaacha which is a small district city on the Mozambique side, wait there for 30 minutes and then go back. Namaacha was dope! It looks like a Portuguese version of the Cove but all deserted. It was nice to speak Portuguese again with all the Mozambiques that we saw. And we got to enjoy little things from Mozambican Markets that we have been missing. On the way back there was some problems with Sister Ross' papers, so we had to wait to figure it all. After about 2 hours of just chilling in the car we went to hotel in Namaacha and had lunch. They were able to get everything resolved and so we headed back to Swazi after lunch. The best part of the trip tho came on the way back. The road that goes to the Namaacha border passes through a camp park and in the past weeks the missionaries have been seeing giraffes and elephants so we were pumped to see some animals. By almost at the end of the park we hadn’t seen any animals until Elder Smith with his eagle eyes spotted something so we pulled over what he had seen turned out to be LIONS!!! hahaha I didn’t take my camera with me so I don’t have any pics to send and I know "No Pics No Proof" so you guys probably thinking, "Yo why is you lying? Why you Mufasa?" But it was dope to see lions and it made the trip worth it.

The next days were great as well! On Saturday I was woken up by the whole zone singing happy birthday with a dank cake provided by Elder Sharpe and some Nutella Cupcakes made by Elder Souza. Was able to read a letter from Elder Tucker. We had lunch at Galitos which I compare to the Swazi Molca. Had a great day of lessons and found a lot of great people, plus got a visit from The Martins so the birthday was perfect.

As the weeks pass I am coming to have more and more of an appreciation of this perfect gospel and the good news that comes with it. That when we have faith, we repent, we are baptized and receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost and endure until the end that because of the perfect love of our Heavenly Father we will be saved and our families will be together forever. I am so grateful for this perfect plan, this perfect gospel and our perfect Savior, Jesus Christ. Because of His sacrifice for us He will "always be right by our side" and we will be with the ones with loves until "3005" aka eternity.

Love guys so much! Thank you again for all the bday wishes!

Elder Chipman